While You Were Gone
by Roman-son-of-Truth
Summary: Everyone thinks Holly will have a hard time adjusting to her return. Others had a much harder time. They also had to adjust to her dissapearance. I was XrebelxofxthexsacredxheartX but I got a new penname!
1. Chapter 1

_He-ya readers! Look, I know that everyone is waiting for a new chapter for 'The Lost Years' and I promise, I'm trying. Writer's block is evil. On top of that, I have so many other things going story wise. When I put some of my own novel on I'll give you all the link. I did, however, have a very good idea for another story. This one is future speculation rather than past, so it'll be a bit different. Here's ta hoping you like it._

Trouble felt his eyes droop. A drowsy cloud had settled over his office, and was quickly seeping into him. He scratched his head vigorously with both hands, and then ran his fingers through his oh-so-quickly-becoming-out-of-regulation length hair.

"Hey-ya major!" Chix Verbil's voice seemed to only hammer mercilessly at his pounding head.

"What is it, Verbil?" He asked the sprite leaning on the frame of his office door.

"Guess who just came in from the surface?"

"Let me guess… would it be the recon squadron I sent topside a couple of hours ago?" He replied in as miserably short tempered, sarcastic tone.

"No…" The smile creasing his face only made Trouble dread the answer even more.

"Alright, then what is coming, Chix?"

"Come see."

"No."

"You have to anyway. Its part of you department."

"Fine." He growled, getting to his feet and following the over-eccentric sprite out of his office.

The one thing Holly wanted to do was sleep. It felt like three years without it had finally caught up with her. She knew it must have been late in Haven, because of how quickly they got into the station.

"There are officers waiting outside the shuttle, but I need to go see Hybras off. See you soon, Holly." Foaly said, helping Holly to her feet.

"It's alright Foaly. I'll see you when you get back. Thanks." She yawned widely, and made to get off the shuttle. Outside stood a giddy looking sprite with pale green skin, deep blue hair and shimmery blue wings. The other looked fatigued, tall thin, and gaunt, but still handsome. His dark hair looked tousled and his eyes were a creamy brown, like almost every elf under the earth, but his were different somehow. She liked them.

"Hey-ya Holls!" The Sprite was grinning from one pointy ear to the other, and hugged her so tightly, she could hardly breathe. Letting her go, he looked at the elf, who was wearing a major's set of acorns, with an annoyed expression.

"D'arvit, Trouble! Your friend comes home after three years gone, and you don't even crack a smile?"

"Trouble?" Holly whispered in amazement. Was this really him? He was so different now. One side of his mouth twitched upwards.

"Hello, Holly." He said. "You need to be de-briefed before you can go home." Holly nodded, still unsure of what she should do. He seemed angry at her, and she just didn't know why.

Holly sat in Trouble's office. The only sound was the quick procession of his nimble fingers on the keyboard of his computer. She seemed to be trying to focus on that sound, and yet, so was he. He was scaring himself, so badly that the room felt like ice. Holly was home and well. He should be unable to stop himself from smiling or looking at her or even talking to her. Why was he so far away from her? He didn't want to have her back just to loose her again. He was so tired of loosing people. He was just tired. Her voice, so hesitantly quiet he hardly knew she was talking, broke him from his thoughts.

"Do you remember when we had out band?" she asked.

"Of course, how could I forget?"

"I bet Chix still plays his guitar all the time." She smiled lightly.

"He probably does in his free time." Still, there was hardly emotion in his voice, as he attempted to restrain from attachment.

"Do you still play?"

"No, I gave it up a while ago."

"When? Why?"

"About three years ago. I just didn't have the passion for it anymore."

"Shame, I miss hearing you play." She said, sadly.

"Why are you doing this?" Suddenly, he felt angry, good.

"Doing what?" She sounded more confused that angry, but it was there.

"Making me feel guilty for giving up guitar."

"You should be. It was your passion, your personality. Why would you give yourself up?"

"I didn't. All I did was change, there is nothing wrong with that."

"What's wrong with staying who you are?"

"What's wrong with changing?"

"You didn't just change, Trouble. I don't know what you did, but change doesn't do this much to someone. You lost yourself. This can't just be change."

"Well it is. If you have a complaint, you can report it to the front."

"Why? Because the only part of you life left is here, in this place?" Venom filled her voice.

"Yes." He said frankly, his voice barely audible above a hiss.

"fine, then. Goodbye, David." He slammed the door behind her.

She fell to the floor, her back against his office door, tears blinding her. Her best friend had lost himself, and become the one thing she hated. Why did he have to change so much? Chix had hardly changed, and she hadn't seen Mulch and Doodah, but they didn't seem like the type. Why Trouble? And was she prone to fall as well? She put her head on her knees as fresh tears came. She couldn't stand the idea of turning into Trouble. She had once idolized him, now… The man she once was so close to was a mere memory. More tears came.

Trouble leaned his back against the door, breathing deeply. Stress was taking over him, now. He'd just driven his one hope at sanity away into the abyss where all his past memories resided. He could hear Holly's tears outside his door and knew that she hadn't left. He should have known she wouldn't leave him. He wasn't going to abandon her either. He opened the door, pulled Holly onto her feet and into a tight hug, closing his office door once again.

"You changed so much. You grew up too much. I don't want to change too." She sobbed into his shoulder. "I like who I am now."

"I like who you are too, Holly." He replied. "Changing is your choice."

"Why did you choose it, then?"

"It's…a long story. I don't want to talk about it." She broke away from him and sat on the chair infront of his desk.

"I've got time. Tell me what happened when I was gone. What happened to you." He took a deep breath, sank into his chair, and began.

_Don't worry, this is not the end. Trouble isn't an ass all the way through the story. Only this chapter, and it gets a lot deeper. It'll be good, I promise. I did this because I'm tired of reading a bunch of stories where Holly is distraught from being gone, and Trouble is all fine and dandy in life. Did anyone stop to think about the fact that Holly and Trouble were like best friends and when she went missing it had a huge toll on lots of people, including him? This is Trouble's sob story-ish thing. I hope I get personality right. I think I will though. I'm good at that._

_-Roman_


	2. Time

"At first, you left. That was hard for me, because you have always been my best friend. I was still myself, though. Even if I was a little depressed." Trouble said all of this rushed and quiet. Holly kept quiet, but her eyes never left Trouble, even if his had found there spot on his laced together fingers.

"About a year and a half later, we got a call. A raid against the imprisonment of Opal Koboi. They were well armed, and ready for the LEP to make a defense. Several officers fell…" He took another deep breath, and continued. "Including Grub." Holly gasped. She couldn't keep quiet, and she felt so guilty for not even thinking about Grub until he was mentioned.

"It wasn't long after that, that my father called me. My mother was really upset about Grub's death, and I'd seen her just recently at the ceremony for him. She had apparently gotten worse, and it was worrying my father. It was worrying me as well to be honest." He stopped and left the room in silence for so long that it seemed as though that's all he was going to tell her. After another deep breath he began again.

"She's gotten so bad now that she doesn't get out of bed. She's really sick and depressed. I'm really worried about her, Holls. I think she's going to kill herself, and I don't think I can take that." His voice was quiet and shaky. Holly felt tears sliding down her cheeks, and reached out to lay her hand over Trouble's. Trouble pulled his hands back quickly, as though he'd been shocked, and didn't even glance up at her hurt face.

"If I've always been you best friend, then why are you shrugging away from my sympathy?"

"I don't need sympathy, Holly!" He was suddenly on his feet, fury rising in his voice.

"Alright, Trouble, I'll leave you to sulk in your won personal misery, neglecting everyone who cares. Have you done this to you father too? Have you shunned him away this harshly? His second son dies, his wife falls ill with depression, and his first son is fired off in some other direction, angry and neglectful to him. He must feel like his whole fucking world is coming to and end, and here you sit every day, just hoping that it will get better and never resolving any problem! You're killing yourself, Trouble! Don't do it! You can't imagine the people you'll hurt."

"The people _I'll_ hurt?! Holly, did you think of the people you'd be hurting every time you pulled a stunt with Fowl? You've come close to death every time, and I'd be willing to bet you did while you were gone this time, as well!" Holly looked down at her feet, and suddenly, all of Trouble's fury faded.

"Holly? How close did you come to death on Hybras?" He asked his voice low again. She was silent a moment, not daring to look at him.

"I…I was, well, I don't know how to say… I was stabbed, Trouble. I was stabbed and killed. Yes I have a tendency to get into fatal tiffs, but I do think of the people who care about me, even if they don't love me anymore." Trouble sank back into his chair.

"What?" Trouble could hardly breathe. "Who?"

"I thought of you, Trouble. The last thought I had was of you. Don't ask how I survived; only Foaly asked Artemis, but now you know." Trouble looked at her.

"Holly, who told you I didn't car about you anymore?" He reached over and grabbed her hands. "I still do."

"Not the way you did." She countered. I was a tense silence between the two of them for a seemingly everlasting moment. Trouble was the first to move, getting to his feet. He moved around his desk to her and pulled her to her feet. Wrapping her into a tight embrace, he whispered in her ear;

"I never said that either."

"Why are you acting so distant, then?"

"I didn't want to get my hopes up or believe that you were back just to see you fall again. I'm sorry Holls, and I'm so glad you back." He held her even tighter.


End file.
